The Eagles looked for vengeance from a loss earlier in the season to USC, but fell Friday night 3-0 by scores of 25-22, 25-23, 25-19.
Jonathan Predney led the Eagles with 11 kills and nine digs followed by Joseph Pillon with six kills. Chandler Gibb ran the offense with 27 assists and came up with six digs.
The match opened with back-and-forward play by both teams before the Trojans pulled out to an 8-4 lead. A string of USC errors put Concordia on a 7-2 run which brought them within three. Pillon came in off the bench to spark the team hitting 1.000 with three kills in the set but the USC offense was too strong and they won 25-22.
Concordia came out to a hot start in set two and took a 6-2 lead off five Trojan errors. USC came back to tie the score at 18-all before taking the lead. Predney scored two of his five kills in this set back-to-back in the 20s, but USC sealed the set with an ace at 25-23.
Hunter Howell led the third set with three kills for Concordia as they capitalized most the set on USC errors. The Eagles came out of a timeout scoring two which brought them within three at 17-14. However, the Trojans closed out the rest of the set and ended the match 25-19.
Concordia will head back on the road to Thousand Oaks to face Cal Lutheran on March 29th at 7 p.m.
